Crypto Currency

Crypto Currency is a name for a number of digital currencies that uses cryptography to secure, control and transfer amounts between people on the Internet.

Bitcoin was the first crypto currency that was launched in the beginning of 2009. And has remained the de-facto crypto currency since the start and during the period that followed. Since Bitcoin was launched over 1600 of different crypto currencies have been launched. All the other crypto currencies besides Bitcoin have often been refered to as Alt-coins (Alternative Coins).

Most of these Alt-coins offer few new properties besides what Bitcoin offers. It is often just based on the same code as Bitcoin with some technical aspects tweaked and changed a bit.

A list of the names of some of the cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency name

Ticker

Bitcoin

BTC

Ethereum

ETH

XRP

XRP

Bitcoin Cash

BCH

Litecoin

LTC

EOS

EOS

Binance Coin

BNB

Stellar

XLM

Cardano

ADA

TRON

TRX

Monero

XMR

Dash

DASH

Bitcoin SV

BSV

Cosmos

ATOM

IOTA

MIOTA

Tezos

XTZ

Ethereum Classic

ETC

NEO

NEO

Ontology

ONT

NEM

XEM

Zcash

ZEC

VeChain

VET

Bitcoin Gold

BTG

Dogecoin

DOGE

Decred

DCR

Qtum

QTUM

Waves

WAVES

Lisk

LSK

Nano

NANO

Bytecoin

BCN

Bitcoin Diamond

BCD

Ravencoin

RVN

ICON

ICX

BitShares

BTS

Aeternity

AE

DigiByte

DGB

Komodo

KMD

Verge

XVG

Siacoin

SC

Steem

STEEM

Bytom

BTM

ABBC Coin

ABBC

Factom

FCT

THETA

THETA

Stratis

STRAT

Cryptonex

CNX

Ardor

ARDR

MonaCoin

MONA

GXChain

GXC

Horizen

ZEN

Aion

AION

Project Pai

PAI

Ark

ARK

Electroneum

ETN

NULS

NULS

Zcoin

XZC

HyperCash

HC

Elastos

ELA

Nebulas

NAS

ReddCoin

RDD

WaykiChain

WICC

Metaverse ETP

ETP

MOAC

MOAC

Clams

CLAM

Wanchain

WAN

CasinoCoin

CSC

TomoChain

TOMO

Syscoin

SYS

PIVX

PIVX

Nxt

NXT

Energi

NRG

Theta Fuel

TFUEL

Obyte

GBYTE

#MetaHash

MHC

Particl

PART

Groestlcoin

GRS

Metadium

META

Unobtanium

UNO

CyberMiles

CMT

ILCoin

ILC

Lightning Bitcoin

LBTC

Apollo Currency

APL

Vertcoin

VTC

Nexus

NXS

Grin

GRIN

TokenPay

TPAY

Bitcoiin

B2G

Neblio

NEBL

Einsteinium

EMC2

Wagerr

WGR

Skycoin

SKY

PLATINCOIN

PLC

GoChain

GO

WhiteCoin

XWC

SmartCash

SMART

HYCON

HYC

EDC Blockchain

EDC

Namecoin

NMC

Viacoin

VIA

BHPCoin

BHP

Some of these cryptocurrencies have been created as a result of a "fork". A fork happens at some point in time when at a specific block, the blockchain splits and creates two chains and two currencies. This can happen when a fraction of the developers wants to change something that is not compatible with the current version and then creates their own client that does the split. Anyone is free to create a fork, but the market will decide if the new fork has any merit.

It is relatively easy to create a new crypto coin. But if it will be successful depends on how well it is received. A new coin without any technical innovations or special purpose will be useless. A pump and dump is common that a new coin gets pushed out with a lot of hype then quickly gets dumped.

A common naming scheme for a new crypto coin is to call it something similar to Bitcoin to try to make it the new official Bitcoin. For example Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoiin.

For the few most liquid crypto currencies it is possible to trade them in a number of ways. For example on special Internet crypto exchanges. Also some Forex brokers offer ETF-like products for some of the most liquid crypto currencies.

Most of these exotic crypto currencies only trade on Internet crypto exchanges. Some of these exotic crypto currencies don't trade at all, and some are more or less failed projects.